


again we meet as companions of old

by penscritch



Series: were wishes ten thousand stars enough [4]
Category: Den lille Havfrue | The Little Mermaid - Hans Christian Andersen, Little Mermaid - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Yes., finally they can get together, reincarnation is a wonderful thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-15
Updated: 2013-03-15
Packaged: 2017-12-05 10:15:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/721912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penscritch/pseuds/penscritch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The wheel of fate turns, as souls are born anew. The Little Mermaid (Hans Christian Andersen)</p>
            </blockquote>





	again we meet as companions of old

He walks through the old oak door, a small bell tinkling merrily as he passes. It was difficult finding a place to fix his mother’s old locket, but the old man had given in after he’d expressed his heartfelt desire to please his mother. He strokes the worn leather cover of his briefcase, where it lies safely inside. True treasure, beyond the estimation of carat and dollar, are hard to find nowadays when everything is modern and the memories lost to the mists of time.  
  
He thinks about the old man’s daughter, her long black hair and her grey-blue eyes like the overcast sky. Idly, he thinks about asking her out sometime -- her eyes have a shadow of broken loveliness in them. It reminds him of how he feels sometimes when he lies awake at night between the sheets in his penthouse in the upper part of town while a great emptiness devours him inside-out. Maybe they can find something together he thinks, though he doesn’t really believe it.  
  
His thoughts make him absent-minded, which is why he doesn’t see the girl walking quickly in his direction until he collides with her. He staggers, too sturdy of frame for the slim girl to push over. She falls in a flurry of colored paper and lovely startled eyes.  
  
Blue eyes. Blue verging on indigo, blue like the sea.  
  
"Oh," she whispers softly. She shrinks back into herself, timid and afraid, and suddenly he’s aware of the bright gold of her hair in the light of day and the sweep of dark lashes against the flawless skin of her cheek. Her hands are small and her fingers delicate as they clutch the pleated folds of her skirt. Maybe a pianist, he absently thinks. Her hands are so small.  
  
Without thinking, he gently takes her hands, holds them as though he is coaxing a bird out of the cage. He speaks softly, careful of startling this fragile wild thing in his hands. "It’s okay." He gathers up the papers flying kite-like in the slow breeze, as she clutches what remains to her chest, eyes wide.  
  
He plucks the last one out of the path of a newspaper boy on his bicycle. It’s still early yet, fortunately, enough so that no one else is wandering down this street just beginning to hum into life just as the bee shakes off the frost. He hands the paper to her, unharmed, startled when she grabs his hands too in her eagerness to take the leaf, and she blushes a pretty rose.  
  
All of a sudden, he feels an awful tenderness for her, for her awkward grace and gentle sweetness like a thorn in his breast. Clearing his throat, he studies their hands as he speaks, tries not to feel the warmth of her hands in his. “It’s fine. I’m sorry for not paying attention -- if I had, I wouldn’t have knocked you over.”  
  
"I’m sorry too," she says quietly, with a voice like crystal chimes. "I should have looked where I was going,” pressing into his hand once in acknowledgement before turning and heading down the street. Stunned, he watches her continue more sedately than before across the grey sidewalk.  
  
He doesn’t want her to leave, not just yet, this fascinating creature who slips away like water through his fingers, like pale sea-sand. As she turns to leave, he blurts out, "Look, I -- I really like you, and I know this is really sudden but -- would you please go out on a date with me?" His face is hot.  
  
Startled, her mouth is frozen in a soft moue of an ‘o’ that he wants to irrationally kiss away. His heart is in his throat, and it feels as though he must let a bird fly free or die in locking it safe in the cage of his bones. That his entire life depends on her answer, this one moment caught between the rush-hour traffic and the world held between their hands. He doesn’t know what he’ll do if she says no.  
  
Her smile is glorious and illuminates her face, a precious crystal flashing multifaceted rainbows for one rare moment as she says "Yes," in a voice warm with unlooked-for delight. That empty place inside him fills up a little, a single drop in the barren desert. It doesn’t make any sense at all, when this morning he’d only just been running an errand, been thinking about the old man’s daughter with the grey-blue eyes. But her. He’s sure this is what he was looking for. Who he’s been looking for. He knows it.

**Author's Note:**

> Finally done with this drabble set. Hopefully the ending is happy enough for all you folks. :D Now how do I mark this series as complete on A03...


End file.
